San Rafael group trawls for support in dredging canal

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A kayaker navigates the San Rafael Canal behind the Montecito Plaza shopping center on Sunday. The channel runs from approximately Irwin Street to San Rafael Bay. (Frankie Frost/Marin Independent Journal)

An uneven pier sits along the San Rafael Canal, which a neighborhood group is seeking to dredge. Supporters say the last dredging work in 2011 was insufficient. (Frankie Frost/Marin Independent Journal)

Boats line the San Rafael Canal near high tide on Sunday. At low tide, the water is as shallow as 2 feet, dredging advocates say. (Frankie Frost/Marin Independent Journal)

The Friends of the Canal, a group organized to obtain funds to dredge the San Rafael Canal, met with waterfront business owners, yacht harbor operators and property owners Sunday to get input on how to find the $4 million to $6 million they say it will cost to clear the channel of silt.

According to federal guidelines, the canal should be at least 6 feet deep at low tide. But the silt buildup in the San Rafael Canal is now so high that when the tide goes out, only 2 feet of water remain in some spots, said Bryon Bass, the group’s leader.

Getting the money to clean it up will be tough but not impossible, Bass and others told about 45 people who came to the meeting. The coalition is just getting started pursuing the funding, and the meeting was an effort to both inform and rally the troops.

The last cleaning, in 2011, was “minimal,” said Catherine Orman, who has rallied the community around canal cleanings for years. A portion of the canal was not dredged because of toxic waste and the remaining portion was dredged only to 5 feet.

The last dredging before that was in 2002.

“We got funding for the 2011 dredging via an earmark from (Congress) but there are no more funds available from Congress,” Sam Ferguson, a member of the coalition, told the audience.

Possible funding sources include the state, the county, a special assessment program or a special organization, Ferguson said.

“What it comes down to is: This community must be active,” Ferguson said.

Bass, Ferguson and others told the audience that elected officials pay attention to letters and petitions, and Friends of the Canal will be organizing such efforts in the months to come.

“The mayor (San Rafael Mayor Gary Phillips) will care when you tell him there is something to care about,” said Arlene Sukolsky. She is a 16-year resident of the area who recently moved to Petaluma but continues her pro-dredging efforts, jokingly calling herself “a canal groupie.”

“I am confident we can pull this chestnut out of the fire,” said Sukolsky, who was wearing a Friends of the Canal T-shirt with the slogan, “Got dredging?”

Keeping the canal clean will help the city retain income from property taxes, Bass said. He said median home prices for all San Rafael homes increased 24 percent in the last five years, while the median price of waterfront homes jumped 32 percent.

“I would be renting slips but I can’t, because the canal is not dredged. I’m losing income,” said Karen Thompson, who owns an apartment complex on the water. Thompson, who has 11 slips she could rent, has struggled to do the dredging herself for seven years.

“I had to go to seven separate agencies to get permits and the like. It costs $30,000 for soil testing alone,” Thompson said.

The dredging will also impact marine-oriented businesses along the water, Orman said.

“The businesses will be making less revenue, so the city will make less in sales tax. If the business is a boat repair shop, the boat owners might say, ‘I don’t want to go to San Rafael because my boat might get stuck in the mud,’” Orman said.

“We have a home on the channel. That’s the reason we live here,” said Bob Lynn Cummings. If the canal isn’t dredged, “our property values will go in the tank. No one can use their boats,” said Cummings, himself a boat owner.

Reached by telephone the Thursday before the meeting, Mayor Phillips said he “would be receptive.”

“The canal is important to us,” Phillips said. “It is dredged periodically; we rely on federal money and state money. It’s a constant cycle. Silt comes down and builds up and you dredge it out. We as a city are going to be interested in how we can help with the process.”